Life Here In the Fast Lane

Gary and I aren’t up to anything new lately. We are still concentrating on our house hunt. I was told that buying your first home is one of the most stressful times in your life. I think much of my house stress comes from the realtor who for some reason known only to her keeps sending me listings in the ‘hood. No way, not with kids. I wouldn’t put a dog in Jere Baxter Middle or Stratford High. They’re about to be taken over by the state for consistently being a failing school, and the surrounding schools are not much better - not to mention the crime rate is significantly high.

Week two of Daniel’s summer vacation has passed and so far I have kept him from breaking any bones or spilling any remarkable amounts of blood. He did get a tick bite the other day and luckily only a minor rash from poison ivy. I consider it pay back since He is specifically forbidden from playing in the wooded area next door, but I have to force myself to calm down and not look at his tick bite or check his temperature every two seconds for signs of infection. No wonder I have all this gray hair! Lea Anna loves having him home all the time. Typical of siblings they spend half the time hanging out like two peas in a pod and the other half fighting like cats and dogs. I taught Lea Anna a few of the clapping songs I remembered from back in the day. She loves these! Her favorites are "Miss Suzy" and "My Mother Your Mother".

There is a lot to that often repeated advice to “never shop on an empty stomach”. All because I
did not want to stop at McDonalds first - after all I’m on my way to buy food anyway and who knows what is really in those sausage McMuffins so this makes sense, right? Well anyway, I strolled on through the grocery store and hit the deli first (mistake number two) and suddenly it hit me. I was starving, everything looked good, and I just had to have it. Grand total - $ 139 buckaroos for mozzarella, sesame sticks, marinated artichoke hearts, baked wheat crackers, a boatload of TV dinners and God knows what else yet I still do not have enough meals to get me through the week. But I did get a Hershey bar, not that it made it past the parking lot.

Here’s some interesting info on the latest TN law about to be passed - they are making it a felony for anyone to “have their way” with animals. Not that I blame them ‘cause that is just plain G-R-O-S-S! But oh, just wait ‘till the rest of the press gets a hold of this. We were the butt of many TV and radio show jokes several years back when the legislature made it legal for Tennesseans to eat road kill. I think this all ties into the mystery of what’s in those McMuffins!